‘“It’s a lot of luck when you get that many points,” said Vanek, who had the best outing by a Buffalo player in five years. “I was fortunate every pass I made went in, and when I scored, I scored. You won’t have many of those nights. You enjoy it, you like the win and you move on.”’

‘“He’s a guy that you absolutely despise playing against,” said winger Patrick Kaleta, who could have been describing himself. “When you look at the lineup of the other team, you go right to his name and say, ‘This could be a long night. I don’t know if I’m up for this.’ He’s a role model for me. A lot of guys look up to him and follow his lead.”’

‘“Obviously I’m not an every-day fighter kind of player,” said Stafford, who had not dropped the gloves since taking on Columbus’ R.J. Umberger on Feb. 6, 2010. “But when the time comes, I feel as though I can handle myself. It’s not something you’re going to see out of me too often. It carries over from last year. Everyone in this lineup is going to hold each other accountable to be harder to play against and that falls into that category.”’

‘“What Staff did was awesome,” Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said. “Right away (he) addressed it, didn’t wait for somebody else to address it. … Those are the type of things that bring your team together. Those are the type of things we talked about. We finished our year on a better note with that last year.”’

‘Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said Grigorenko played “steady” and “consistent.” “I probably used him as much as I wanted to,” Ruff said. “I think there’s going to be an opportunity to inject him in a few other places in the coming games. But (I) wanted to get him through that first game, and I thought it went well. … I thought defensively, sometimes in his own end we got hemmed in a little bit. But positionally, I thought he did a good job.”’